The Squirrel's Thrift 



r 



son out with conscious intelligence that the 

 scenes of a twelvemonth ago will surely be re- 

 peated that again, by and by, the green 

 leaves will change to brown, the flowers and 

 fruits will wither and fall, the soft odorous 

 earth and rippling water will turn to stone, and 

 the world become a place of starvation for 

 squirrels unless they bestir themselves. 



Any one who stops to consider the little 

 beasts, and measures how much knowledge, ex- 

 perience, and brain-work are implied in their 

 alleged " foreseeing," must conclude that it is 

 very unlikely the squirrels have any perception 

 of the facts at all, much less a superhuman 

 capability of knowing what is to be the next 

 season's particular character and of providing 

 against it. If this is so, it follows that the ap- 

 parently careful, and certainly effective, pro- 

 vision of shelter and food which so many of 

 them make previous to the descent of winter, is 

 an automatic performance the result of an 

 instinctive impulse wholly independent of fore- 

 knowledge or any anxiety about impending 

 scarcity. The fact that in some of its higher 

 0$ 39 5 



